So You Think Leaves Australia

Charismatic thoroughbred So You Think left balmy Australia for freezing Ireland on Tuesday with the colt's owners hoping he can emulate his sire High Chaparral by proving himself to be the best racehorse in the world.

 

The four-year-old middle distance specialist is making the long trip from New South Wales to County Tipperary after the Coolmore stud purchased a controlling interest in him in a deal reported to be worth $60 million last month.

 

Australian training great Bart Cummings described So You Think as probably the best horse he had ever trained and the sale to Coolmore a few days after a third-place finish at the Melbourne Cup as a "great tragedy" for Australian racing.

 

Cummings had trained the colt to two Cox Plate victories and three other Group One wins, fuelling the widely held impression that So You Think was the best racehorse Australia had seen in three decades or more.

 

"We see this as a great opportunity for So You Think to showcase his talents to the world," Coolmore Australia's Tom Magnier told Brisbane's Courier-Mail on Tuesday.

 

"The racing world is well aware of the brilliance of the Australasian sprinters, but to produce a middle distance horse capable of successfully competing on the world stage, as we believe So You Think can, would serve as a huge boost to the Australasian racing and breeding industry."

 

So You Think will be trained at Ballydoyle by Aidan O'Brien, who prepared High Chaparral for victory in the 2002 Epsom Derby and the Breeder's Cup turf in 2002 and 2003, the latter in a dead heat with Johar.

 

"So You Think is going to the same place where his father, High Chaparral, was trained to be a world champion," Magnier added. "We are hopeful So You Think can also prove he is a world champion next year."

 

So You Think will have to adapt to colder weather in Ireland -- the Hunter Valley home of Coolmore Australia was enjoying 25 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, while temperatures in Tipperary plummeted to minus 10.

 

story: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com